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OF 



DOC'IIMKNT 

N'o. L'!<2 



PRESIDENT WILLIAM H. TAFT 



AT THE BANQUET OF THE TIPPECANOE CLUB 

CLEVELAND, OHIO, JANUARY 29, 1912 

IN CELEBRATION OF THE 

BIRTHDAY OF 

EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY 






PRESENTED BY MR. SMOOT 
February 5, 1912. — Ordered to be printed. 



WASHINGTON 



",775 



§■ -% 



ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT AT THE BANQUET OF THE TIPPECANOE 
CLUB, CLEVELAND, OHIO, JANUARY 29, 19 1 2. 



I consider it ^roat (j^ood fortune to be present as a f];iiest at your 
celebration of McKinley's birthday. Every menioiial day is most 
p:rateful wliich brinp^s back into our lives most vividly that sweet 
nature, that tender heart, that clear-headed exponent of common 
sense, that embocUment of love of country and love of human kind 
whom we knew as WilUam McKinley, and cherished as a j)roduct of 
Ohio. His was a nature which ,ii:iew with the exigencies he had to 
meet,, and developed its fjreatne.ss in the trials of war and its conse- 
quences. His foresight, his patience, his firmness, and his grasp of 
the ne\y questions ))resented in deahng A\-ith the Spanish dej)enden- 
cies which passed into our hands have given him a fixed, permanent, 
and most honorable place in history. 

Such a celebration as this of McKinley's memory is full of personal 
interest to me because it was he who induced me to leave the calm 
and peaceful atmosphere of the court house and the consultation 
room to enter upon a political career, first in the Orient, and then in 
Washington, which has brouglit me to the responsibility of the office 
whose duties I am now trWng to discharge. 

I sincerely hope that reverence for McKinley's memory and the 
fond affection that it aw^ikens may furnish the motive for a long life 
of patriotic usefulness to this club and for the preservation of tho.se 
Repubhcan principles of which William McKinlej'- was a great 
exponent. 

The last national election was in November, 1908. The next one 
will be in November, 1912. The conventions for the selection of 
the candidates to represent the two parties are to be held in June, 
and the time is ripe for the beginning of the discussion which will be 
continuous between now and November as to the proper party to 
whom to entrust the administrationJof the Government for the next 
four years. 

Tlie victory at the polls in Novend^er, 19()S, was decisive, and it 
left the Republican Party in control, not only of the Executive but 
of both Houses of Congress, and in such a situation that there was 
no hindrance to its jiutting into efTect and performinsr the promises 
contained in its platform adopted in its convention of 190S u]>()ii the 
faith of which the mandate of power was extended to it. 

The four months' campaign which is usually conducted between 
the holding of the conventions and the election, early in tlie following 
November, is an educational and clarifying j)rocess for the benefit 
of the American people. The )>()ssible candidates are reduced to 
two in number, and the doctrines, purposes, and promises of each 

3 



4 BIRTHDAY OF EX-PEESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

party are set out in specific detail in its platform. The issues are 
thus clearly defined, and throup-h the press and through the party 
sneakers, the people are generally brought to a clear understanding 
of what constitutes the difl'erence between the two parties, and are 
given a full opportunity to iudge which, on the whole, would be the 
better trustee of tlie public interest in the administration of the 
Government for the next four years, 

I do not think ^hat we generally attribute suflScient importance to 
the educational (ff 'ct of this campaign. It has often happened that 
the confusion and ignorance of the public mind as to the real issues were 
such in June of the presidential year, that, had an election then 
taken place, the result would have been diff.>rent froni what it was 
in November after four months' discussion of the campaign. Usually 
the question whether the party whose administration is just ceasing 
shall be continued in power rests ultimately upon the question 
whether its accomplishments during its lease of power have been 
commensurate with its promises, and whether the results have been 
of such value to the country at large as to assure continued satisfac- 
tion and progress in the four years to come. In other wordg, the 
question is generally determined by close examination and considera- 
tion of the legislative and executive acts of the party incumbent in 
the current four years. It must rest upon its record thus made. If 
that record be a satisfactory one, the country in its sober second 
thought and after a careful consideration of it in detail, will give its 
approval by a reelection of the same party; but if it has been found 
wanting, if its promises have not been kept, if its administration 
has not been satisfactory, and the promises of the opposing party are 
fair and reasonably adapted to meet the defects shown in the incum- 
bent administration, the change is made, and then the smooth opera- 
tion of our plan of popular government is demonstrated by the ease 
with which the change takes place by the acquiescence of the retiring 
administration in the victory of its opponent, and by the continuance 
of the Government as a unified whole, with new leaders, but under the 
same constitution, the same laws and the same political limitations. 

What I wnsli to discuss to-night is whether after the convention in 
June we of the Republican Party have anytliing to fear in that close 
examination of our political record of the current four jea,Ts which 
is the chief function of the presidential campaign. The adminis- 
tration is usually made responsible under three heads. 

First, under the head of le^slative enactment. It matters not 
how little influence the Executive may actually exercise over the 
deliberations of the two legislative branches of the Government, 
the people seem to treat the three branches of the administration, 
if of uniform political color, as a whole and do not discriminate be- 
tween the Executive and Congress in weighing the value of its legis- 
lative achievements. 

The second head is the conduct of foreign affairs. This is left 
largely to the Executive so far as the initiative is concerned, and 
only when treaties are to be made is the confii*ming power of two- 
thirds of the Senate invoked. 

The third head is that of purely executive action, in which the 
Executive exercises the authority given by the Constitution or laws 
without restraint of the legislature. 



BIRTHDAY OK KX-PUlvSIDKNT WILLIAM M. KINLEY. 5 

LKCISLATION. 

Coiniuij; now first \o the Ic^^isluiivo ('naclmonts of tlio j)i«-st'ul 
aclniiiiistratioii, I oii^lit lo |)()iiit out that wo a^rocd iu the platroiiii 
of 19()S that tho taiilf shouhl ho r(<viso(l on lh(> |)r(>tot'livo priiiciplo 
tluit only oii(>ii<j;h tarilf should l)o rotaiiu'd to o(|iud tho (hH'oicuco 
botwooii tho cost of j)ro(hictiou of tlio iiior(hau(hs<^ w h<'ii iuad(* horc^ 
and wluMi luado abroad, and tho platfonu promised that an oxtra 
sossiou wouUl bo caUod for iiuin<Mhato ro\ i.^ioii. Tlio oxtra s(\ssiou 
was caikul, and aftor four mouths of Juird work tho so-callod J^ayno 
tarilf bill was ouaotod iulo law. That bill was subjoctod to bitt(^r 
attack not only by our J)emocratic oppoiionts but also by cortaiu 
Koi)rosontatives and Sonatoi*s from our own ranks, who conlondcd 
that tho rates ILxed Moro not m accord witli tho standard of nivision 
promised in tho platform. I need hardly say that this result \\'as 
greatly aideil by misumlerstanthniL!; and misrepresontalion of tho 
facts in respect to tho Payne bill, for while the Payne bill was ^lot a 
full com{)lianco with the i)romiso there were substantial revisions in 
the bill, anil the resulthi<^ act did not deserve tho anathema and 
abuse to which it was subjected. The bill as a whole contained many 
most useful provisions, and it is quite remarkable Jiow many notable 
and useful loj;"islative changes in the policy of tlio Government are 
to be traced to it. 

In the first place, it simplified and greatly shortenetl the pro- 
cedure necessary to secure the authoritative construction of the 
tarilT act by the creation of a Court of Customs A])]>eals w^hose 
jurisdiction is final, and to which a])peals lie directly from the Gen- 
eral Ap])raisers In the second place, it offered to the Executive 
in dealing with other countries the alternative of two tariffs — the 
one 25 per cent higher than the other — in order to conijiel the other 
countiy by a threat of the higher tarilT to stop its discriminations 
against American trade. This required making a treaty with eveiy 
one of our international associates, and under these treaties conces- 
sions were secured which have been among the chief contributing 
causes to the growth of our foreign trade beyond the figures of 
the ])ast. 

A third provision of the law enabled me to appoint what grew 
to be known as a Tariff Board, and wdiat, under the additional ap])ro- 
priations of Congress, begau a series of investigations into tho cost 
of production of articles abroad and of articles at, home. The devel- 
opment of this board was a growth, but it met the public need. 
With the ])rinciple osta])lished of enacting tarifT legislation only u])()n 
exact information derived from investigations of an im])artial board, 
one of the corollaries which followed and was a])))roved by conven- 
tions of the Ivepublican l^arty was that requiring revision and amend- 
ment of tho scnedules of the traiff by separate schedules. 

These two changes in the method of dealing with the tariff have 
met the hearty sup]K)rt of tho busmess communities of the country. 
They, more than any other ])ersons, appreciate the disadvantage of 
the halt and tlisturbance in all business circles and in the prosperity 
of the country that attends a generjd revision of the tarifV, and 
they know, better than anyone else, how much that ahum and distuib- 
ance can be reduced by a system which proceeds upon the princi])le 



6 BIRTHDAY OF EX-PEESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

of exact information as to its effect before amendment, and which 
deals with one subject at a time. 

Nothing has come into the politics of this country of more jirac- 
tical importance than the present united attitude of the Republican 
Party in favor of an impartial, nonpartisan tariff board, with full 
opportunity and means to investigate the facts and find the truth 
with reference to imported merchandise, the cost of manufacture 
abroad and the cost of manufacture here, and all the other circum- 
stances that ought to affect the rate and imposition of the duties. 

Our Democratic friends at first accepted the principle, and many of 
them voted for such a board as I have described; but a section of 
their party was able, by filibustering, to prevent the fhial passage of 
a bill which had passed both Houses by a good majority. Conse- 
quently, I had to have recourse to the provisions of the Payne bill 
and to an appropriation which was voted by Congress in order to 
provide a substitute for the statutory tariff board wliich failed. 
The reason for the importance of this instrumentality is found in the 
fact that it touches the nerve of the people, which was irritated after 
the passage of the Payne bill, and which resulted in a Republican 
defeat and a Democratic victory. 

Our Democratic friends are in the habit of claiming that the elec- 
tions of 1910 were a repudiation of the doctrine of protection and a 
return on the part of the people to the principle of a tariff for revenue 
only. They are mistaken. It was not a declaration in favor of a 
tarilf for revenue or free trade. This is shown by the fact that the 
Democratic vote was less rather than greater than it had been in 
the presidential election. The defeat of the Republican Party came 
not from an increase in Democratic votes, but from a defection of 
Republican votes, i. e., of its own members who stayed at home and 
refused to stand by the party in what they regarded as a failure to 
redeem its pledges. In order, therefore, that in future revisions 
there should be some honest, accurate, and reliable standard by 
which the degree of the revision might be known, I appointed the 
Tariff Board which has served, and tlie business men of the country 
formed an association to press for legislation creating a permaiient 
tariff board or bureau, by which there should always be at hand an 
accurate yardstick to tell what in fact the tariff is, what the etTect 
of the proposed amendment is hkely to be, and how near in effect it 
measures the difference between the cost of the production of the 
merchandise in question at home and abroad. 

CHANGE OF DEMOCRATIC FAITH. 

Our Democratic brethren have departed from the faith on a 
tariff board which a majority of them once embraced and, in the 
extraordinary _ session of last year, they passed three tariff bills 
without the aid of information from a tariff board, drawn in such 
an unscientific, unsystematic, and reckless way that I did not hesi- 
tate to veto them, in (nxler that they might await the coming in of 
the report by the Tariff Board upon schedule K, wool and woolens 
which one tariff bill affected, and upon cotton and cotton manu- 
factures, which another tariff bill afl'ected. We should be entirely 
willing, upon the issue whether those bills ought to have passed in 
the form in which they were drawn, mth the little uiformation as 



BIRTHDAY OF F.X-PRKSIDKNT WILLIAM M. lu.NLLY. 7 

to their oH'oct which Conj^ress hiul. oi- wjis able to furniah tho Kxocu- 
tive, to go before tlie coiiiitry and invito a verdict <»f tlie people. 

Til e reports of the Tiuiil' lioard as to tho cost of ])roduction of ])rint 
pa])er in Canada and in the I'nited States was a luminous exj)osition 
ol the elements of cost and the circumstances surrounding the trade 
in each country, but a gieater and much more compichensivo rei)ort 
has lecently been filed on tlie subject of the cost of raising raw wool 
in all parts of the world, including the United States, and on the cost 
of manufacturing woolens in Europe and in this country. This 
report is so fair, so comprehensive, so full of the most valuable infor- 
niation, and so lacking in ])artisan quality that it has commended 
itself to the country at lai-ge, and has elicited little if any criticism 
from those who might be exjiected to attack it. With tliis full infor- 
mation upon which a tarill" bill might be framed and from which it 
would be entirely ])ossible to infer its eifect upon the wool and woolen 
industry of this country, the Democratic majority in the House has 
as yet taken no action. Init has proposed to consider other schedules 
with respect to which the report of the Tariff Board must be long 
delayed, or, in the absence ol a suitable appropriation by Congress, 
may never .reach completion. 

1 wish, as far as possible, to emphasize the issue which is thus 
presented between the two parties as to the importance of knowledge 
before action in respect to the tariff, for I think, my Republican 
friends, that this is the issue upon which we may safeh^ go before the 
country and prove our good faith in regard to a desire to lower duties 
as far as possible consistent with the protective principle already- 
stated. It brings us to the (question whether, in reducing duties, we 
are to reduce them with a view to the preservation of our industries 
and giving them a chance to live, or whether we are to act recklessly 
without information and without regard to a probably disastrous 
efi'ect upon an important part of our business. For one, I am very 
confident that on this issue the people will be with us, and that our 
friends, the enemy, are entirely mistaken in their interpretation of 
recent popular expression. We do not ask for any industry a rate 
which shall give it an opportunity to enjoy undue profit in competition 
with the foreign manufacturer, or which shall tempt our manu- 
facturers to form a monopoly in order to secure the artificial benefit 
of a rate that is Jiigher than the difl'erence in productive conditions. 
As an evidence of our good faith, we are ready and anxious to abide 
the judgment as to the facts of a board of scientific investigators who 
kncnv no party and no party interest in their researches, and only act 
as Judges of the fact to find the truth. r— —J^ 

It is said that our Democratic brethren intend to withhold the 
a])propriati(jn for the continuing of the Tarilf Board. I do not know 
wiiether this is true or not. If it is, it will only accentuate the issue 
between the two parties and only make more clear the difference in 
their attitude, and in my judgment will only em])hasi/e the ad vantage 
which we have in our ])ositioii on this general matter. 

To recur again to tlie advantages that ])roceeded from the Pavne 
])ill. By a section in that bill with certain limitations upon the 
amount of importations of sugar and tobacco, we gave for the first 
time to the Philippines free trade and full access to our market. The 
effect of this generous but just treatment was almost instantaneous, 
and the growtJi of tlie business between the two countries has been 



8 BIKTHDAY OF EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

such as to vindicate those of us who for 10 years last past have been 
working for this end, and such as to show the lack of foundation for 
the feai-s of those who opposed the policy. The trade of the Philip- 
pines has grown apace, and prosperitj^ which had b( n a stranger to 
the islands since we went there seems to have established itself per- 
manently in those gems of the Pacific. 

Another feature of the Payne bill was the passage as an amendment 
to that act of the corporation tax. I claim and assume full respon- 
sibility for the adoption of that tax. It taxes success and not failure. 
It imposes a small percentage upon the net earnings of a coi^poration 
before they are distributed in dividends. It affects every business 
corporation in the country, and the collection is made by our present 
internal-revenue machinery at a cost that is inconceivably small. It 
has the advantage that it can be doubled by maldng it 2 per cent and 
trebled by maldng it 3 per cent, and all with no substantial increase in 
the cost of collection. Its incidence is at a point where those who 
pay the tax feel it least and under conditions that render an evasion 
of it almost impossible. Its passage was accompanied by the adopt- 
tion of a concurrent resolution amending the Constitution to permit 
the levying of a Federal income tax, wliich is still under considera- 
tion by the States. Whether that power be given or not, for the 
present at least the corporation tax is a sufficient income tax to meet 
the public requirements. 

I have thus reviewed the benefits conferred upon the country by the 
Payne tariff bill. I think Republicans generally concede that there 
are certain schedules, certainly tlie woolen schedule, possibly the cot- 
ton schedule, that need amendment; but they insist, and properly 
insist, that the amendments should be intelligent and not destructive. 
There may be other schedules of the tariif bill that need revision and 
further consideration, but they ought not to be made except in the 
light of full and accurate information. We are not wedded to any 
particular rates, and we are quite v.illing as a party to reexamine any 
rates in the light of proper information should the mandate of power 
be agam given to the Republicans, so that the party shall control the 
Executive and both Houses. I do not doubt that almost the first bill 
to be introduced would be one establishing a permanent tariff com- 
mission or bureau of information, whose duty it would be to continue 
the work of the present tariff board, preparing a glossary of the terms 
of the tariff and making as fujl as possible a statement oi" the elements 
of cost at home and abroad of the merchandise covered by the sched- 
ules of the tariff, with directions to keep this information up to date 
and to make such communications to Congress and the Executive as 
a change in the conditions from time to time would make appropriate. 

RAILROADS. 

The platform of 1908 declared in favor of additional restrictions 
and regulations of the interstate railroads, v/ith a view to the better 
and more uniform enforcement of the interstate commerce law. The 
Republican Party has carried out that promise to the letter. I 
invited a board, consisting of the chairman of the Interstate Commerce 
Commission, Commissioner Lane, Senator Townsend, then a member 
of the Interstate Commerce Committee of the House, the Attorney 
General, the Sohcitor General, and possibly some others, to investi- 



BIRTHDAY OP EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM MoKINLEY. 9 

gate the reports of the Interstate Cominercc Commission and make a 
report to me of the improvements that mij^jht be efl'cctcMl in existing 
law on this subject. Tliis was clone, and they made recommendations 
wliich were substantially embodied in a bill tlrafted by the Altorney 
General, with such amendments from time to time j)roi)os('il by jjur- 
ties in interest as seemed just. Congiess took tliat bill, amended it 
in certain particulars, but left the general elfect of the bill the same 
as when I outlined it in a speech at Des Moines, and leconnnendetl it 
to Congress in my message. The chief inii)rovement in the law was 
giving life and effect to the orders of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission, so that they could not be ignored or minimized by the rail- 
road companies, and in giving the commission an opportunity to pre- 
vent a raising of rates until after investigation into the fairness of such 
action. That was the feature of my recommendations to Congress 
and of the bill as it was adopted. 

Another new and important feature was the creation of a Commerce 
Court, to which was transferred all the jursidiction which hadthei-e- 
tofore been exercised by the circuit courts in some (JO or 70 different 
districts of the United' States. It was thought that by cond)ining 
all this jurisdiction in one court of five men with experience it would 
greatl}^ expedite the final judgment and brhig to the Supreme Court 
quickly tli' se cases which were subject to review there. I observe 
now that some of the decisions of the Commerce Court have been 
contrary to the Interstate Commerce Commission and that this has 
been made t'le basis of complaints against the Commerce Court, and 
a ground for suggesting its abohtion. It seems to me this would be 
the most foolish step possible. If the Commerce Court has decided 
improperly as to its jurisdiction in issuing ordei-s enjoining action 
by the Interetate Commerce Commission that can easily be remedied 
bv the cases now pending in the Sui)reme Court, decisions in which 
will show exactly what the jurisdiction of the Commerce Court is; 
but the abohtion of the Commerce Court would not in any degree 
avoid the intervention of a court after the orders of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission, for the right of the railroads to invoke the 
action of the court for a judicial investigation into the legal or con- 
fiscatory matter of the order of the commission could not be taken 
away. "^The Commerce Court is only a concentration of 70 jurisdic- 
tions into one making for greater expedition, and a more summary 
disposition of the causes, and this is tlie great desideratum in the 
machinery for the regulation of interstate commerce. 

I need not stop to invite attention to the othei^ increasingly regu- 
lative provisions of the interstate commerce amendment of 1910. 
It is sufficient to say that at present the regulation seems to be 
effective and calls for little if any amendment. 

Growing out of the passage of this bill, a commission was appointed 
to report" upon the wisdom of regulating the issue of stocks and 
bonds by interstate c )mmerce railroads. The report made recom- 
mends certain conservative legislation, but sets forth the principles 
that ought to govern in such a satisfactory way as to have attracted 
the commendation of all. 

The sessions of 1910 and 1911 of the Sixty-iirst Congress were 
productive of additional provisions for safety api)liances on radroads 
to prevent injurv to emplovees, for the reenactment of an employers' 
hability law "which has now stood the test of examination by the 



10 BIRTHDAY OF EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

Supreme Court, of the appointment of a commission to make report 
upon a workmen's compensation bill to secure something Hke insur- 
ance for all workmen in interstate commerce, and for a mining- 
bureau, adopted chiefly to promote the cause of humanity in mining 
by the expenditure of money in research to determine the best 
method of preventing those distressing losses of life among the 
miners whicn from month to month shock the community. 

Again, the same Congress carried out the platform of the Kepublican 
Party and created machinery for the establishment of postal savings 
banks. These institutions are serving already a most useful purpose 
and are gathering in the savings of the poor at a rate of $1,000,000 a 
month. They are being extended into those parts of the country 
where banking facilities are denied to the people, and are furnishing 
at a less rate of interest than savings banks pay inducements to 
deposit for people who will only trust the Government. The exten- 
tion of the system is going on, and its success is assured. 

Another position taken by the Republican Party and carried out 
by it, but not completed, is that of conservation. The Sixty-first 
Congress gave the President the express power to withhold from 
fiu'ther absorption vast tracts of the public domain covering coal, 
phosphate, water-power sites, and oil, and we look to this Congress 
to take the steps which shall open to reasonable development under 
control of the Government the mineral and agricultural resources of 
Alaska, as well as those which still remain within the governmental 
control in the United States. 

There is forming a plan for the betterment of our currency, a plan 
which has been given exact formulation by the Alonetary Commis- 
sion, but which is of course subject to discussion and amendment by 
Congress. The necessity for the adoption of this general principle, 
I think all Republicans will concede. The question is whether the 
details provided secure the objects admitted to be of capital impor- 
tance, to wit, the increasing and decreasing of currency according 
to the needs of business under the control of a bureau or executive 
tribunal so constituted as not to feel the influence of Wall Street and 
not to be completely within the governmental control at Wash- 
ington. The discussion is going on, and the Republican Party, if 
given power, can be trusted to reach a conservative conclusion in 
this regard. 

The Postmaster General and I have recommended the taking of 
initial steps toward a general parcel post and the improvement of 
the opportunity presented in the rural deliveries for the instant 
beginning of the carriage of parcels at a moderate rate from the 
points wiiere the rural routes begin to the country patrons of those 
routes. A report is just now about to be made by a tribunal of the 
highest character, Mr. Justice Hughes, President Lowell, of Harvard, 
and President Wheeler, of the Chicago Association of Commerce. 
They have made an exhaustive study as to the proper rate for sec- 
ond-class mail matter, which the Postmaster General has been of 
opinion is too low as compared with the rates paid for other classes. 

.1 think it will be found in studying the platform of tlie Republican 
Party that we are in a position to say to the people of the country 
that we have performed to the letter most of our promises, and with 
respect to those where fulfillment does not seem complete we are in 
position now, if given power, more fully to redeem them than ever. 



BIRTHDAY OF EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. 11 

In matters of foreip:n policy we have every reason to con{]:rntMlHt«' 
ourselves. The problem which was before \is in f()reip:n matters was 
the endmg by its terms of the Japan(>se treaty and the necessity for 
a new one. The happy solution was l)rou«;ht about throufjli a policy 
adopted by the Japanese Government of its own motion and carry- 
ing out, and by a treaty which lias no offensive wortl in it. There 
never was a time in the history of the two countries wlien we were 
on more friendl}" terms, and this has been largely due to tlie success- 
ful settling of the treaty by Secret a ly Knox. 

We have treaties pending with Hon(hnas and Nicaragua to carry 
out the policy of the treaty with Santo Domingo and they ought to 
be ratified. The responsibility for bad govermnent in those Central 
American States and for revolution and disturbances must fall u])on 
the shoulders of tliose who defeat the treaties. The treaties of gen- 
eral arbitration with France and P^ngland I shall not stop now to 
discuss, except to say that they are a very decided step forward 
beyond anything else in the history of the w-orld toward universal 
ar])itration and peace. They are pending in the Senate, and it is 
the hope of all of us that -within a reasonable time after full discus- 
sion they may receive the approval of the necessary two-thirds of 
that body. 

In respect of the Executive we have a right to say, I think, that 
last year the new Democratic Congress used every possible machine 
of investigation into the manner of the conduct of the departments of 
the Government, and that up to this time at least nothing of detri- 
ment or dishonor has been discovered. It is not too much to say that 
the departments have been run with the sole purpose of making them 
efiective to discharge the functions imposed upon them by law. In 
the first place, as rigid economy as practical was enforced in the mak- 
ing of the estimates of the departments. In the first year of this ad- 
ministration they were cut upwards of $50,000,000. Taking tliis cut 
with the increased revenue or the Payne tariff bill we have been al^le 
to turn a deficit on the first of July, 1909, of $58,000,000 to a surplus 
for this year of more than $40,000,000. 

In the'Post Office Department the saving has been such that for the 
first time in tw^enty-five years there has been no deficit, but a surplus 
of the earnings over the expenditures of $1,000,000. 

The mobihzation of the troops on the Mexican border for the pur- 
pose of protecting American rights and steadying the maintenance of 
law and order in our neighboring Repubhc showed a capacity for quick 
mobihzation, which w'as very satisfactory. 

A review of our great Navy in New^ York Harbor produced a fleet 
second to but one in the world. 

The laws have been enforced. The interstate commerce -law and 
the antitrust law. Indictments have been found, and bills in equity 
have been filed in cases that seemed to call for governmental action, 
and they have proceeded to judgment in due course, and the judg- 
monts have been enforced. 

For a time at the culmination of this policy an outer}-- w^as made 
against the wisdom of the antitrust law. That, however, has sub- 
sided, and I think that the business community are reaching the con- 
clusion that by following the judgments of the court, by studying the 
distinctions made in the decisions of tlie vaiying cases, a rule perfectly 
plain to be followed may be known of all men, and that business. 



12 BIRTHDAY OF EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

having squared itself with the rules laid down as to what is just and 
what is unjust business in interstate commerce, may go to further 
triumphs of legitimate combination and industrial success. 

Looking back over the record of what has been done in these four 
years, it seems to me that we are armed with the facts and with 
things accomplished sufficient to meet our enemy in the open field, 
and to overcome him in the judgment of an impartial umpire. It 
seems to me that there is no occasion for the Republicans of this 
country to fear the issue, with their knowledge of the progress that 
has been made in the last four years, with their adoption of progres- 
sive principles indicated in their platform of 1908, and in the proposals 
of the administration since that time. They must, if they would 
serve the country well, discriminate between what is really progres- 
sive and useful and what is utterly at variance with sound, constitu- 
tional, governmental, and economic policy. 

Should the Republican Party take up the judicial recall as one of 
its tenets, it would and ought to lose caste as a defender of our civili- 
zation, a maintainer of the Constitution, and an upholder of justice. 
When we depart from the principle of the independence of the judi- 
ciary, and by independence I mean not only independence of individ- 
ual interests but independence of majorities, we shall lose the 
valuable essence of the administration of justice, and we shall retro- 
grade to the point where the history of the decadence of republics 
begins. On this, the natal day of William McKinley, let us take new 
vows in behalf of the Grand Old Party, standing by the Constitution, 
standing by the rights of liberty and property of the individual, 
and willing to face defeat many times in behalf of the cause of sound 
constitutional government. 

o 



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